'A while girl and a black girl can't be friends.'
'Why not?'
'That's just the way it is.'
It is 1958 in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the debate about racial integration in schools is raging.
Marlee is a 12-year-old introverted math lover... until she comes across the bold and playful Liz, who joins her school. Liz encourages her to talk more at school, and she even convinces her to participate in an oral presentation in front of their class. Marlee finds a companion in Liz that she can laugh and have fun with and who has similar interests to her. Her sister, Judy, encouraged her to find people like that to hang around. Marlee's other friends, such as Sally, do not quite strike a chord in her like Liz does.
Then one day, Liz is removed from school. The official story is that she is ill. However, Marlee hears that a parent saw Liz in the colored section of town, and the parent informed the principal of this grievous occurrence.
Marlee misses Liz a lot, and Marlee's sister, Judy, goes to live with their grandmother so that she can attend school there. Her high school in Little Rock is closed. Marlee's teacher father is laid off from his job, while her teacher mother is required to go to work at the high school every day, even though no kids attend the school.
There is an epic political battle in Little Rock to remove certain school board members who oppose integration. This is Marlee's side. The segregationists are working just as hard to get even more signatures in order to remove board members who are sympathetic to racial integration in schools.
Can the friendship of a black and white girl survive all of this strife?
The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine, 2012
Books about racial integration